I left the mall and headed for home my excitement growing the closer I got. I was about to change my life in a big way. I’m sure my family knew I was headed in this direction, but they had no idea how soon that would be. I wasn’t worried about them thinking that it was too soon, or that we hadn’t known each other long enough, mom and dad knew the deal. I was truly amazed though at the turn my life had taken. It was the best fucking rebound in history.
I barely got the words wedding out of my mouth when I got in the house before the screaming started and I was pushed aside, while mom and her crew took over. “Just make sure that she gets her colors and all that other happy shit. Don’t say anything about this until after I give her the ring okay.” I showed her the ring and she did that thing that I guess all women do. The tears began and then the three of them were cooing and telling me what a great job I’d done. “Okay give it back.” I wiped off their fingerprints and headed out of the kitchen where they were busy making one of their gastronomical messes. This was a good thing because that means I’d get the time I need alone with Josh to do what I needed to.
If I was going to pull this off then I had to move, I wanted him over and done with. “Are we ready bro?” he was already in my room doing his thing on the computer. We had yet to get into Bruno’s laptop, which I was beginning to get a very bad feeling about. I had no idea what the creep had on there but it was a good bet that it was going to be bad. I just hoped it had nothing to do with Kadyn’s whereabouts.
His money had gone without a trace and we did it in such a way that he couldn’t get the insurance for it because there was no way he could prove that it wasn’t him that took it. If that wasn’t bad enough I kept emailing him stills from his house so he knew someone had infiltrated his space at the very least. Next came the cryptic notes about knowing what he was. Basically I was feeding his growing paranoia my main objective to drive him out of his sick fucking mind. The predator had become the prey and he wasn’t handling it too well.
I had no idea how he coped outside his house, I didn’t think to put eyes on his car and shit but I had him covered enough to feel comfortable that I knew what he was up to. Inside behind closed doors he was a mess. The formidable figure that had first filled the screen when we started a few weeks ago was fast becoming a slouch. He was unkempt and harried which I’m sure others had to be noticing as well, and that was part of my plan. I wanted to break him down little by little, to make the world around him see his true colors.
Josh did his magic with the keys and then sat back with a grin. “Voila.”
“Thank fuck, you only took forever.” I tried to make light of the situation but my heart was sick with fear. What was I going to see on that screen? What had he been trying so hard to keep hidden?
At first there wasn’t really much to cause suspicion. There were what looked like work records and shit like that and I was starting to relax, believing that he’d had it so well secured because he kept vital information that had to do with his high clearance job. Then Joshua got all excited and started tapping away at keys and the bottom fell the fuck out.
“Motherfucker.” Sick, that’s what I felt as I scrolled through the screen, no it wasn’t Kadyn on the screen, but what it was was somehow worst. Children, dozens of them in the most compromising positions that no child should ever be subjected to. The tension in the room was palpable, I didn’t even look at Josh next to me, my head was actually spinning and I felt the bile in my throat threatening to choke me. “Where’s dad?”
“Office.” It was the only word my brother could get out and I didn’t blame him. Was this what he’d had in store for her? it seemed so farfetched, so distant somehow, unconnected. He couldn’t have been planning anything like this for my Kitten. For one she was years older that the kids on the screen. But he’d started when she was younger. Still shouldn’t he have lost interest after she grew up, isn’t that what the experts said? Or was this bastard into more than one vice? Obviously he was because what I was looking at here told a whole other story. This was separate, had to be. I was grabbing at straws because I didn’t know what to think.
“We can’t wait for dad to come home we have to take care of this now. Do you think…?” I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth. Even with the shit that had happened to Carrie right here in front of me, I don’t think I’d ever seen such evil as this. It left me cold and numb inside. I had to move now though, couldn’t afford to waste any more time. I had no idea if the children gagged and bound on the screen were in danger at the moment or if they were already gone, but I knew we couldn’t wait.
“What’s the name of that town again? we have to call the police.” My mind wouldn’t work, I couldn’t see past the anger that was beginning to burn under my skin. I wanted to get on a plane and hunt him down myself, more than anything I wanted to be the one to bring him down but those children, fuck. Whatever plans I’d had for him would have to be given up, this shit had taken it to a whole new level.
We found the name of the town and hashed out a plan. We needed to have everything in order because I still didn’t want Kadyn involved. I thought about calling James since I was in way over my head here but squashed that idea. It was my problem and I would deal with it. I wanted to bring this fucker down myself yes, but not at the expense of innocent babies. I had thought all along that she was his only victim, why hadn’t I realized that someone as sick as that just might be into other evil shit?
For the next half hour we hashed out a plan, I had to fight my natural instinct to run and get her but she was safe with her dad, these kids might not be. It was a sick feeling to think that if we didn’t do this right more children might get hurt. The cops in that town had already proven that they didn’t know shit; either that or they were blinded by his stellar public persona. We decided to hit up the FBI. James has assured me in the beginning that there was no way for anyone to trace the eyes and ears he had planted back to me that’s even if they were found. I’ll deal with retracting them later but I couldn’t sit on this new information, not even if it meant detection.
In the end we made an anonymous call and claimed that he’d brought his laptop in for repairs and we’d seen some questionable material. It was all we could do for now and sit back and wait for the results. If they didn’t move fast enough then I’d send James to take care of it. Josh found a way to send some of the pics from the laptop into the bureau making sure to cover our asses so that they’d never know it was from us. We wiped anything that had to do with Kadyn from the laptop and went back through the PC to make sure there was no trace of her there. I knew from our conversations that she was more interested in getting him out of her life for good than in making him pay for what he’d done to her and so there was no danger of damaging any future case. I’d battled with whether or not she would need that closure but her reaction at the mere mention of his name was enough to convince me that she had no need to go there. Plus I think she’d lost all faith in the justice system and who could blame her. He’d find it hard to wriggle his slimy way out of this though if the feds did their jobs.
“Are we done? I have to go get her.” The image of those young girls was burnt into my corneas and I couldn’t help putting her face in their place. I needed to hold her, to feel her soft skin under my hands, the beat of her heart, to reassure myself that she was okay, though I knew that she was.
“Go, there’s nothing more for us to do for now. I’ll keep my eyes on his place and see if anything happens there. The law moves slowly sometimes. You do know that if they don’t deal with this shit we’ll have to right?” I knew he was going to say that because I’d been thinking the same thing myself. As much as I would hate to leave her at a time like this I would get on a plane and go hunt the fucker down myself if need be.
“Yeah I know.” I left the room and the house with my thoughts in a jumble. If the feds did their job this should be over in a matter of days. That’s what I’d been after all along but not like this, I’d wanted to keep her out of whatever was going to happen but again not like this. Not at the expense of others. I couldn’t allow myself to think of what may or may not have happened to the children captured in those pictures. I felt a deep sense of anger and I guess betrayal at the system. How could we as a society let such things happen? They had this guy in their sights because she’d done the right thing when she’d made a complaint almost three years ago. What might’ve happened had they followed up? Obviously the asshole was a criminal as was proven by the deviant shit found on his hard-drive, so why hadn’t they done their fucking jobs? What if he’d killed or hurt someone else’s kid in the meantime?
I’m not sure where I’d thought his obsession was heading, I never allowed myself to think of the sexual connotations because that would’ve just made me lose my shit. But now faced with the reality there was no hiding from it and the fear in my gut was almost crippling. It was stupid to think of what ifs but that’s all that kept playing through my mind. What if he’d got to her? what if we’d never met? That thought most of all left me cold.